That’s a pretty strong statement. Who’s number 1 you ask? According to the same report, it was Pinehurst. Holly Springs can boast about more than just being ranked the 2nd safest city in NC this year. According to neighborhoodscout.com, Holly Springs is in the top 100 safest cities in the country, and the only city in NC to make it on the list.
In 2013, Businessweek.com named Holly Springs “The Best Place to Raise Kids in North Carolina” and NerdWallet.com honored Holly Springs as the “Best Place for Home Ownership in North Carolina” as well as one of the “Best North Carolina Towns for Young Families.” As if that’s not enough, Holly Springs was one of the top three safest places to drive according to AAA Carolinas for communities with a population 10k-30k (2012 & 2013).
In an effort to find out why HS is so safe, I scheduled a visit with Holly Springs Police Chief John Herring. After all, we have our police force to thank for making Holly Springs one of the safest places to live in the county. Chief Herring modestly credited the citizens with the great statistics though. As we continued to speak, he convinced me that we, the community, are an integral part of keeping our community safe. I feel the HS Police Department should still be credited, but Chief Herring’s feeling is “The citizens of Holly Springs are more eyes and ears for us on the street.” Granted he’s referring to valid reports and concerns. Believe it or not, the HS Police Department gets a staggering 40,000 calls annually. That’s a lot to sift through to find out where they are really needed. Maybe it’s best to think twice about calling the police about the neighbor that blew their grass clippings into your yard.
The Chief did mention that being out there and being proactive, has helped to discourage crime to some level. They make an effort to be out driving though the neighborhood, and interacting with the citizens. They have also realized that people find that officers on motorcycles are more approachable than those in cruisers. If you have a valid concern, feel free to talk to the officers on patrol.
It seems everyone has something to say about the police. Some good, some bad, and some is just wrong. I addressed some common comments that I’ve heard about the Police Department here. Here are the myths, and the answers:
Busting the Holly Springs PD Myths
Myth: Holly Springs seems to have a lot of police officers. Much more per-capita than other areas.
Answer: False. The Holly Springs Police Department has 60 employees, of which 48 are officers. Statistically, that’s below the 2 officers per thousand that’s recommended. With 48 officers on duty, that’s only 1.7 per 1,000 residents. That includes the School Resource Officers, Patrol, K9 and Traffic divisions. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that in order to have 1 officer on duty 24/7/365, it requires 4.2 officers on the force.
Myth: The Police Department makes their money from writing traffic citations.
Answer: False. The Police Department technically looses money when you get pulled over for a traffic violation. For the average traffic citation, they receive about $2 of the funds that you pay. The rest goes to court costs, administrative costs, the schools etc. When you consider that the department has to pay the officer, pay for the car and the gas etc, $2 per ticket doesn’t make a dent in the costs associated with it. Chief Herring also said that less than half the people that are stopped actually get a citation. To him, it’s all about having people obey the traffic laws. “It’s not a revenue generator.” Also, the concept of “hitting ticket quotas” is not only wrong, but illegal.
Myth: The Police write tickets because they have nothing else to do.
Answer: False. There are different branches in the department. There are Patrol Officers – which are the officers that you’ll see driving the neighborhoods, and often the ones that will respond to an incident and handle calls for service. There are also the K-9 units, School Resource Officers (SROs) and Traffic Officers. That officer that is talking to you about running a crosswalk or speeding, is doing so because that’s his job. There are other officers that handle other incidents.
To encourage safe driving and enforce traffic laws, including obeying speed limits, stop signs and crosswalks, the Holly Springs Police Department recently opened an email address. Trafficcomplaints@hollyspringsnc.us allows the Police Department to receive residents’ reports of areas in town where drivers chronically disobey traffic laws. Use trafficcomplaints@hollyspringsnc.us solely for reporting motor vehicle violations that can be addressed by the Police Department.
The HS Police Department has also started using their facebook page to let the community know what’s going on in their department. The facebook page shares posts about local suspects that you may be able to help identify, what the police are doing in the community, where they will be doing demonstrations, and even a head-up on what types of traffic laws they are currently focused on enforcing. The August 12th post, for example, was “Crosswalk enforcement in full effect!”. They can be found on facebook under Holly Springs Police North Carolina. If you’re not already following the HS Police on facebook, you may want to add them.
Something you may not already know is that we have our own 911 call center here in Holly Springs. When you call 911 in Holly Springs, the call is answered by a dispatcher in Holly Springs. The benefit of not being routed through the main switchboard in Raleigh, is that they can prioritize the calls on how they see fit locally, and handle the call appropriately. Even calls made from cell phones in the Holly Springs area come into the call center. Of course there’s a chance that the call could be redirected to a tower outside the jurisdiction, but for the most part, local calls are handled on a local level.
We also discussed the School Resource Officers and the role they play in the schools. The School Resource Department does more than you think at the Holly Springs Schools. Holly Springs has at least one officer in each school, with two in the high school. This is a $300,000 program, of which only $75,000 is funded by the state and county. The state offers funding for one full time officer, and then partial funding for a part time assistant. HS made the decision to add additional funding to have two full time officers. There is also some county funding for a Middle School Officer. Even with two full time officers on duty at the high school, it still remains the petty larceny epicenter of Holly Springs. Let your high-schoolers know that they need to be smart about where they leave their high-dollar electronics.
The Department has made a conscious effort to make their SROs approachable to the kids at the school. They don a different uniform than the other police. The uniform is a toned down version of the standard Department uniform.
When asked about why we need an SRO in elementary school, Herring responded “We think that there is a real benefit to starting to build the trust at a young age. Many of these students have known an SRO from kindergarten to graduation. They walk the halls together, and there’s a trust built between the kids and the officer. We hope that if there is ever an issue that a student needs to discuss with an officer, they’re comfortable in doing so.”
Due to the growth of Holly Springs, the Police Department is also growing in order to keep up with the population. They have outgrown their current facility in Holly Springs, and are in the process of building a new facility across from the main fire station, near the intersection of Bass Lake Rd. and Holly Springs Rd. Certain areas of the new facility will be secured entry only in order to protect electronic data. It will also give them a specific space for the K9 unit, as well as enough room for the rest of the department.
With the issues throughout the country where the residents and the police departments are at odds, we’re fortunate to have a department that is committed to the community. They’re doing a great job keeping us safe.
Considering that the biggest crime in the town rated number 1 is hitting your ball into a water hazard, I’m ok being rated number 2.
